STAFF CORRESPONDENT

Jatiya Party MP Pir Fazlur Rahman, referring to a government land acquisition deal involving the health minister and his family, yesterday said corruption is rife in the country’s land sector.

While participating in the discussion on the “State Acquisition and Tenancy (Amendment) Bill, 2023, the opposition MP, terming a report against Health Minister Zahid Maleque as “regrettable”, demanded the land minister look into the corruption in the sector.

Fazlur said corruption is rampant in districts where there are land acquisition projects.

He said it is understandable that land needs to be acquired for various development projects undertaken by the government but the government has to tackle corruption there.

Referring to the recently published report in a newspaper, the he said the minister and his children bought land in Manikganj before it was acquired by the government to set up a factory for Essential Drugs, a state-run company.

He said it has become a practice for some people with prior knowledge to purchase land on proposed project sites to make hundreds of crores of taka.

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